World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria now live; bring on the Pandas!

Today is officially the day Pandas step foot in World of Warcraft. The newest expansion, Mists of Pandaria, went live today giving players a whole slew of new content to explore and play with in the long-standing MMORPG World of Warcraft.

With Alliance and Horde warships clashing off the coast of a long-lost continent, Mists of Pandaria signals the start of a new era of discovery as players storm the shores of this new frontier and begin to explore its mysteries. On this new continent, Pandaria, players will encounter a new pandaren race, discover a new monk character class, and explore pandaren as they adventure to the new level cap of 90. Both the pandaren race and monk class are playable.

In addition, Mists of Pandaria introduces a host of new gameplay elements designed to give players "more ways to enjoy the game". This includes scenarios, which is a flexible new kind of cooperative PvE trial, challenge modes, and an all-new pet battle system.

"Mists of Pandaria takes players back to the roots of World of Warcraft -- exploration, discovery, and the epic conflict between the Alliance and the Horde," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "It also contains the widest variety of content that we've ever added in an expansion, and we're excited to be able to share it with players around the world this week in our first truly global launch."

Mists of Pandaria is currently available in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. It will be available in South Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on September 27, and will launch in mainland China on October 2.